Japanese mills negotiate price hikes for HR Coils June shipment

Author: Paul Ploumis09 May 2014 Last updated at 06:27:42 GMT

TOKYO (Scrap Monster):  According to industry sources, Japanese mills are said to have commenced negotiations with Korea on June shipment of Hot-Rolled (HR) steel coils. The Chinese mills are reported to have slightly increased the prices of June shipment to Korea. The Japanese mills too are seen pressing for a rise in June shipment prices when compared with the May shipment prices.

The Chinese mills were forced to reduce the May shipment prices by $10 to $15 on the back of fears of dropping raw material prices. However, the mills argue that the price drop of $15 was too much in May and that they need to raise the prices of June shipment at least by a few dollars in order to compensate for the extremely low prices of May.

According to reports, the country’s largest steel maker POSCO has settled for a price hike of 10,000 won (almost $10) with domestic HR coil customers in South Korea for shipments of February through April.

Some of the Japanese mills did not ship during the month of May due to lower prices. Other mills are said to have adjusted their prices of May shipments. However, all the mills now look forward to a hike in June shipment prices at least by few dollars. The price hike by Chinese mills has forced Japanese mills to persuade for the much awaited hike for shipments due in June.